This information from everyone is very helpful. I want amore uncluttered life-stye too. I'm going to pick a time#1 everyday now to sort & go through. the scrapbookingboxes & 3-ring binder will help& I had forgotten & gotoff track. I too have Genealogy and keep very closeand safe. The scrapbook memeory book(s) I had thoughtof but didn't want a ton of those either. But getting startedwill help and I'm starting today!

I put a piece of Amethyst near me & calming: Today I startedimmediately, allowing myself to pick 5PM ( by that time I'mdone with other chores) 1 1/2 hr. is good I un-packed my 3new binders and 5 scrapbooks suitable for certain keep-sakes.got rid of old magazines ( hard to do with my outmoded thinking)The rest of the magazines I dumped on the floor so I will haveto Sort them out. OK going to make my own luck here:) I wantto remedy this problem. I got rid of a OLD picnic basket thatalways gave me the blues ( just by looking or thinking of )It had cloth napkins inside & now I will use them. and recipieswhich i put in my recipie notebook ( for now) WoW that basketGONE and feels good. I got rid of some old 'reminders' & notesto do 'things ( I haven't done yet all year) THAT's distractingand makes me feel bad, They're gone! Over-whelming but I didit QUICKLY, so Not stop. of course a little potentiallynervous but have been planning this 'power change',knowingI was going into motion, positive yet still a little stressful.This is why I was getting worried. Interestingly didn'tbother me as much as I thought and only a hour 1/2 at a timemakes it easier. Thanks to the POSTING here too. Somagazines & start working on Old CDs? and one box a week(I'm thinking?) I have three boxes of papers (1/2 is papersand health & junk) the other is personal, so the scrapbooksshould work well and I may toss more then I think. So fortoday, having that Picnic basket OUT??? Feels great, and Ihave lovely napkins to use next week when my husband willbe home for Vacation & a few meals :)instead of 'waiting forCompany that we don't have as much any more' and I have a niceplace to keep my 'new napkins in my kitchen ( so I can use them)Like I said <teasing> I don't know what Planet I've been on?I'm back home, it feels good! Thanks Forum/organizing

A&C, that is great work! have you been able to keep setting aside the time? I bet you are just grooving along. Even just five minutes a day makes a difference over time. :-)

I might have an odd solution to my old papers issue. I might be buying some land with a useless mobile on it. It would make a great storage shed. I could actually divide it up by rooms! That way I could have the things i need to sort pre-organized by area. I could use the useless kitchen counters as a sorting/staging/packing area.

Wow jilly what luck for you to find that land with the useless mobile on it!

I have a van that I had to retire a couple years ago, (it did not pass the emissions law. It would cost more than it's worth to repair it for inspection!), and I use it for storage. I took out the back seats and threw them away, and there's lots of room in there. No one at the apt complex has complained yet about taking up a parking space, so I'm ok with it for now. But I'm always going back and forth with deciding to sell it for junk. i could get $200-300 for it. I WILL sell it when I get rid of the yard sale stuff in it! But for now I'm making use of it!

Back to your land with mobile. So have our plans changed? Do you still plan on leading a 'traveling life', and have your land to go back to and someday build on it?

The van is definately staying in use. At least unless someone complains that it is taking up a parking space!

I used to have yard sales a couple times a year at least. I would have them when i didn't have work cleaning apts but the last year I've had work, almost non stop, which is good. Is great, as a matter of fact. And I've gotten real picky about what I will accumulate for my sales, because I have so much of if now, from not having sales! lol Half of my living room is taken up with it. I don't mind too much, since I basically live in the bedroom anyway. I try not to cool the whole apt if I don't have to. But enough is enough! i need to get rid of some things in order to start accumulating better stuff. Jeez, I'm not sure if that makes sense, now that I've put it down here! haha.

Another thing is that I haven't had any one to help me get it downstairs. I live up stairs and cannot do it by myself. Lately there has been a couple people who are interested in doing it, so I'm kind of planning a sale. I pay them $10 an hour to do that, but people get jobs, or they move, and so on. I'm trying to do it before it gets really hot here. Its unbearable to be out in the hot afternoon in the summer!

Recently I met some women from a church, who have yard sales for their church, and I got the idea that I will give them some of this stuff! The more i think of that the better it sounds.

Dinah - that is an awesome idea about giving them items for them to sell with the church. That way it goes to a good cause (most of those church sales are directly for a charity) and you can get some breathing room in your life!

I'm still able to keep 'setting' aside the time to sort.Got the 3 boxes & papers in order-down to what I want to dowith everything. I have to stick to the same time of dayor else I'll slip a little I can go for shorter 30 min.sometimes but best for me to do these things when my birdis napping or more settled & doesn't need alot of my attention-That's when I run around like CRAZY & get some sorting done.I was pretty excited at first, getting rid of stuff/papers?Mostly Now I'm wishing ( I want everything OUT of my place)But that's not happening this year. I say this because itwould be so much easier to paint/repair & do things in myapartment. Also I have always loved 'the LESS Look' Like whenyou first moved into a place and hardly much in it?I'm not able to do the 'storage Thing' I did that once inthe 80's but I was alot younger and always had someone to help me go back & forth ( which was often) and now I don'twant to spend the $$ or have to worry about getting back& forth to storage. Gosh I say to myself, what DO I want?I don't do yard sales and again I have no one to help meget the stuff down my stairs /up stairs OMG it's stressfulfor me to even think of 'sales' and it gets hot here too Sorry whining here My husband teases me and says I don'thave 'too much' of anything. So maybe it's me taking up thespace, oh dear. But seems like all I think about is, wishingmy place was more empty (LESS) well for now, sorting and stickingto doing 'something every day and the scrap books are a big help.